Suppose you gave me a fiver (yes please – ed). I would be five pounds better off, and you would be five pounds poorer. But the greater economy which is you and me would be no different.

Suppose the government gave me $500 billion (err, yes please– ed), you would be $500 billion worse off, because the government would have to take that money from you. At least it would if you and I were the only people in the world.

They say Steve Jobs used to fire staff in the elevator. So this was the nightmare scenario for you if you worked at Apple. You step into the lift and just as the doors close, a hand reaches in, the door slides back open and there stands the familiar figure...Read More

Profits were $1.28 billion in its latest quarter. Just bear in mind that when Google was floated in 2004, it was valued at $23 billion. At the time, many said that valuation was just plain absurd, proof positive that a new dotcom bubble was underway. Some may make a similar claim...Read More

In the garden the weeds and the green shoots seem pretty evenly spaced.

Here is one green shoot. UK industrial production rose by the highest level in 25 years in July. Here is the weed: in August it fell back, and despite the previous month’s rise, year on year industrial production...Read More

“You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics,” said the economist Robert Solow once. It’s odd. Did you know that if the family salon car from the 1960s had seen its top speed increase at a trajectory consistent with Moore’s Law, today it would be able to...Read More

As the earthquakes became worse, the ancient Minoans demanded blood. Clearly the gods weren’t happy, so it was time to make more human sacrifices. Of course, there were occasions when a blood sacrifice was followed by less seismic activity, which was cited as proof positive that the policy worked.

Let’s try again. Windows (yes it is possible to say that word without falling asleep) looks a tad bit like yesterday’s news. Now tablets are a different matter; they can cure the headache of many an electronics company and its shareholders.

It was told here a couple of weeks ago how there were signs of green shoots. For example, industrial production in July saw its biggest month on month rise in 25 years. No less than 236,000 more people gained employment in the three months to the end of July.